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Hlundadim
393 DR of the Burning Winds An unknown wizard, believed to be a renegade arcanists of Netheril or from another plane, unites the goblinkin of the Windy Plains (present-day southern Anauroch) by force. He styles himself Great Hlundadim and names the realm Hlundadim after himself Before the elves came to settle the section of great Cormanthor known as the Wolf Woods, before even Netheril's fall, goblins swarmed like vermin over what is now known as Cormyr. They lived on and under and between the Storm Horns and Thunder Peaks, along the vast wooded foothills between them, and the wide plains where the Goblin Marches and the Stonelands now sprawl. Dozens of tribes, each hundreds or even thousands strong, claimed small pockets of territory, holding it only as long as it interested them, or held enough food to support their numbers. Some formed permanent settlements, or even cities, the ruins of which can be found among the Storm Horns and Stonelands to this day, though their founders were wiped out long ago, some even before Cormyr's founding. When the early dwarven kingdoms came, the goblins pushed northward, the fire and axes of the Stout Folk forcing them from the Thunder Peaks and the southernmost Storm Horns. Some moved out into the Tun valley or what would become the Dalelands, but they fled from the lands the dwarven clans claimed. When Thauglorimorgorous the Black Doom, the "Purple Dragon," claimed dominion over the lands between the two great mountain ranges and the Lake of Dragons, the goblins fled in terror from scale and claw, hiding wherever they could from the dragon and his kin. When the elves inherited the dragon's "kingdom," the small humanoids were pushed farther north, out of the proper woods into the foothills just south of the Storm Horns, and held at bay by sword and spell from moving out of the narrow band of territory between those hills and the approaching southern border of the Great Desert. And then Anauroch attacked. Goblins had, for centuries, raided the Netherese cities that surrounded them, sacking Asram and Anauria almost at will. It was the depredations of the goblinkin that made it so easy for plague to take hold of Asram and wipe it out completely in -33 DR, though many sages believe that the city was simply swallowed by the growing desert. As the desert grew closer to the mountains, and the goblins' territory grew ever smaller, the ugly humanoids grew increasingly desperate, each year bringing less food to forage and more that needed to be raided from human settlements. Anauria eventually fell- not to the goblins, but their distant, orcish kin- leaving the goblins without ready sources of food to raid. The dwarven kingdoms of the Storm Horns had long since moved on to other halls, and without the ready axes of the Stout Folk to keep them at bay, the goblins of the marches- who had come to call themselves Hlundadim, by which they meant "great empire"- were able to cross the mountains and sack or burn most of the northern settlements of Cormyr, including Arabel. By 180 DR, the goblins had raiding parties able to reach as far south as the Sward-the vast, rolling pastures north of Jester's Green. It was King Moriann who, in 186 DR, finally mustered Cormyr, along with the last of the great elven houses that remained in his lands, in opposition to Hlundadim's forces. So vast were the ranks of the goblin armies, and so entrenched in their positions, that the conflict took nearly fifteen years, claiming the lives of both of Moriann's sons, his brother Tharyann "the Younger," and more than half the number of all elves that joined in the fray, to finally push Hlundadim back over the Storn Horns in 201 DR; the mustered armies were too few and too weary to press the attack. Even Moriann was so taxed in health by the conflict that, on returning home to Suzail in triumph, his heart failed at the dinner to celebrate Cormyr's victory. The goblins that returned with Nalavarauthatoryl the Red, the "Devil Dragon," were not, contrary to common misconception- for those that know the history at all- those of Hlundadim or their descendants. Instead, the Grodd (as they call themselves) were but one of the many tribes that inhabited Cormyr when the elves arrived. Their cavernous city, of the same name, was located near the northwest corner of the Storm Horns, close to Tyrluk and High Horn. In typical goblin fashion, the Grodd also gave this name to all the lands they claimed. Also in typical goblin fashion, their claims of territory overreached any claim they might actually be entitled to make, and "Grodd" included all of Cormyr, the Stonelands, and the Farsea Marshes. Grodd slowly, inexplicably was pulled out of the Material Plane and toward the Plane of Shadow, becoming an actual demiplane at some point between –150 and –140 DR. The elven sorceress Aerjaril Evaralam, one of the subjects of the elven court of Iliphar, was investigating the city as it moved out of sync with Toril, and became trapped in the demiplane, forced to hide from the goblins for months before finally using her brother's dagger as a link back to one of Faerûn's inhabitants strong enough to transport her back. It is Aerjaril's notes which early wizards of Cormyr used to select Grodd as an ideal place for some of its planar banishments, including that of the elf-dragon Nalavara. Until the arrival of the Devil Dragon on the demiplane in 116 DR, the only real differences between the Grodd and their goblin brethren were superficial- their skin is a lime green, as compared to the yellows, oranges and reds predominant among goblins more common in the Realms. It was the dragon that taught the goblins the value of organized labor, of unified (if often contested) leadership, and of vengeane of the humans of "Grodd"- the kingdom of Cormyr. For over a millennium, the goblins improved upon their great city under the tutelage of Nalavara, building a society unparalleled among any other goblin peoples. Given the lack of powerful magics, however, Nalavara's escape was slow in arriving, and the bonds holding the dragon in the plane strengthened those of the Grodd as well; magic was all that could fuel an escape from the plane, and the dragon's alone would not suffice in enabling her escape. Though she played upon the fears and beliefs of the goblins, claiming that she would one day bring them the Iron One and a return to the greater lands of Grodd, she was unable to find quick enough escape for herself or the goblins to prevent plague from wiping them out some time around 1150 DR. It was not until 1369 that Nalavara was able to finally break the barrier between Grodd and the Material Plane of Abeir-Toril and put into motion her raising of the ghazneths. It was the result of an accidental wish that pulled the Grodd into the present day, retoring the city to full populace, providing the goblin army which, like that of Hlundaim, swept over Cormyr's heartlands with its allied goblinoids and goblinkin. Of the 10,000 warriors of Grodd, one in ten survived the war with Cormyr, and the goblins eagerly await the day that their numbers are strong enough to finally trample the human cities into the dust. Category:Hobgoblin kingdoms Category:Settlements in North Faerûn Category:Settlements in Anauroch